Santa, around the world

Christmas is a time for gift-giving and cheer — and least, it is in North America and much of the Western world. However, when you move beyond these borders you run into what may seem to be some very odd takes on the concept. Many non-Christian societies have integrated a localized version of the holiday into their traditions, but Christmas has a mascot that’s entirely divorced from the religious side of things, and thus travels well: Santa.

It makes sense that you’d appropriate a legend as awesome as a flying arctic survivor who hands out annual moral judgements in the medium of gift, but many of the derived characters are wildly different, and many of the similar ones, amazingly, have no relation whatsoever.

The Santa-derived characters are the more amusing, since they offer a bizarre view of our own nonsense traditions as seen through the lens of other people’s nonsense traditions. For instance while the Italian gift-giver La Befana is not derived from Santa, their tradition of leaving out some food may be. We leave out milk and cookies for Santa — because Santa’s got an appetite and because we know he’s still got some driving left to do — but the Italians leave out a glass of wine for their version of Santa. But the airspace is so much more crowded in Europe…

Santa, can your bag fit salvation from a watery grave?

The Greeks also have a separate tradition for St. Nick, and they focus on his role as patron saint of the sea. He is usually depicted drenched in sea water, his thick beard dripping with brine, and rather than bringing presents he is best known for saving endangered ships through sheer skill, rather than any flying snow vehicles. Greek seamen spend all year with their version of St. Nicholas, as many captains will refuse to leave port without a tribute to him somewhere onboard.

The Japanese mostly defer the present delivery aspect of Christmas to New Years, when a Buddhist monk named Hoteiosho comes to town. Hoteiosho has eyes in the back of his head and families throw beans for good luck and also to welcome the monk to their newly cleaned home. He does deliver gifts, and has even been said to travel with a red-nosed reindeer, but the differences in culture leave Japanese Santa very distinct; he is, after all, a figure of Buddhism and not Christianity.

A modern Yule Goat, made from straw. A much more Santa-like gnome delivers Sweden’s presents these days.

In Sweden, a Santa-inspired figure has come to slowly replace the traditional Yule Goat, which used to deliver the (chewed) presents to good boys and girls. Much as with Santa, it was traditional for a male member of the family to dress up as the Yule Goat for children, and deliver gifts to the house. Today, people tend to favor a much more Santa-like character called Tomte, a little gnome that looks like Santa crossed with the Kiebler Elf.

And, of course, North America is not the only place on Earth to tie itself in knots over Christmas and its associated characters. Here, we tend to wring our hands about the relationship between religion and Christmas celebration, but in Holland there’s a different touchy subject: race. Sinterklaas is the Dutch version of Santa, and while the judge-like old man with a long white beard and red suit might look similar, his helper doesn’t. Rather than relying solely on reindeer and North Polian elves to assist his mission, Sinterklaas has a second in command named Zwarte Piet — or “Black Peter.”

The history of young Piet really does prove that the character was not created to be a racist caricature of Africans, and indeed he predates most of the relevant racist imagery by a hundred years or so. Still, history aside, you really can’t deny that Piet’s got an optics problem. There’s a similar sort of “War on Christmas” backlash going on in defense of old Zwarte, but the flagging Christmas character will very likely be phased the rest of the way out of Dutch Christmas within the decade.

After you read about global Santas for a while, the similarities become far more interesting than the differences. For instance, while the build, clothes, schedule, and even species of Santa changes dramatically from nation to nation, he (it) always seems to be concerned with improving the lives of children. This relates back to the character of St. Nicholas, known for his generosity to children, but it also speaks to the fact that, culture aside, there are certain universal truths about human beings.

Children like fantastical characters who embody some broad aspect of society, and perhaps even more reliably, adults like indulging their children in this. It’s not just about keeping the kids happy and quiet; whether it’s a flying fat man or a Christmas goat, people seem to derive real joy from diving into this particular custom, in its many and varies forms.